JACKSON – Commercial development in Jackson will continue with the construction of a three-story self-storage building on West County Line Road (Route 526).
On Aug. 17, members of the Planning Board approved an application that was submitted by SAFStor Land Co. LLC. The application proposed the construction of the 104,211-square-foot building.
Following testimony from representatives of the applicant, Chairman Robert Hudak, Vice Chairman Leonard Haring Jr., Timothy Dolan, Michelle Campbell, Jeff Riker, Paul Nigro, Andrew Jozwicki and Jackson Business Administrator Terence Wall voted “yes” on a motion to grant the application preliminary and final site plan approval.
The building will contain 819 storage units and a 675-square foot business office. The applicant agreed to provide at least three storage units for charitable organizations in the community.
Attorney Henry Kent Smith, engineer Kyle McKenna, traffic engineer Jerrid Dinnen, architect Ben Paszkiet and Jon William of SAFStor represented the applicant at the meeting.
McKenna said the property is in a Highway Commercial (HC) zone, in the vicinity of Solar Avenue and townhouses. The site to be developed is bordered to the east by existing commercial uses and to the south by West County Line Road.
“The proposed improvements include a three-story self-storage facility, which is a permitted use in the HC zone. There are two driveways proposed along West County Line Road; one is an entrance only driveway and the second is a full movement driveway,” McKenna testified.
He said both driveways would accommodate emergency vehicles, and he said the proposed loading/unloading areas at the site would accommodate vehicles of various sizes (i.e., from cars to a small box truck).
During his testimony, Paszkiet said there will be lights mounted on the three-story building. The 819 storage units will be of varying sizes to accommodate the needs of people who rent the units. The building will have 24/7 security card access and is climate controlled.
The building will contain centralized stairwells and elevators.
Williams, the representative from SAFStor Land Co., said, “We are a fully integrated storage company. We identify the property, design the sites and build the sites, and then we hire a professional management company to manage the sites for us.”
Williams said the company assesses whether residences in a five-mile radius of a site provide sufficient storage space and make a determination to build a self-storage facility based on those calculations.
The SAFStor Land Co. application met with the board’s unanimous approval.
